Episode 24 – Jim Browning

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In this episode, I discuss the career of unknown World Champion Jim Browning.

Update

I recently made thirteen of my non-fiction books available to bookstores and libraries in paperback. I hope you will see them in your local bookstore or library soon.

Main Content

While reading about the double-crosses of the early 1930s, I discovered Jim Browning. After double-crossing Jim Londos out of the title in 1932, promoters put the world title on Browning presumably because he could prevent other shooters from double-crossing him in the ring.

Jim Browning was born James Orval Browning in Verona, Missouri on March 31, 1903. Browning began wrestling professionally in 1922 at only 19 years of age.

Browning wrestled around southwest Missouri and Kansas between 1922 and 1923 before travelling to Kentucky and Tennessee in 1924.

By the late 1920s, Browning was the top star for Paul Bowser’s Boston promotion.

Browning is little known today due to his untimely death in June 1936. Browning was recovering from an abdominal injury in a Rochester Hospital, when he suffered a pulmonary embolism.

500 people attended Browning’s funeral in Verona, although the population of the town is 382.

Review

I recommended a match from the December 10, 1981 episode of Mid-South Wrestling. Ted DiBiase defended the North American Heavyweight Championship against Paul Orndorff to end the episode. You can watch the whole episode but do not miss this match.

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